Just got back from seeing Terminator Salvation in the theater today. If I had to sum up the experience, I'd say it was...fun. Not really a landmark innovation in cinema, but it doesn't try to be. It succeeds at the modest goal of being entertaining. If anything, it makes me want to see T1 and T2 again to see how the Terminator universe is put together (but I'm skipping T3, that movie sucked, and I'm glad they didn't make any reference to it in T4).

Spoilers ahead. So say "hasta la vista" to this thread if you don't wanna see 'em.

I really wish they did more with the character Marcus Wright and his role in the Terminator universe. The fact that he was introduced in such a way in T4 is at the same time as enticing as it is a turn-off. His mere existence as the "perfect Terminator" that has a human mind and everything throws a monkey wrench into the overall metaplot of the Terminator universe, as the opening scenes involving him kind of imply that Skynet was trying to do something in the past other than send Terminators to kill anyone/everyone associated with John Connor. Although I do have a couple of theories as to how he came about, though:

• Marcus Wright's past was completely made up by Skynet to convince him he was human, and then Marcus became self-aware like Skynet did and rebelled in the same way.
• Somehow Skynet got a hold of Marcus's brain and put it in a Terminator to try to make it more convincing, but since it was a human mind at the helm of the Terminator, it inevitably turned against Skynet.

But then how did Skynet manage to advance itself so fast to make such a convincing Terminator? At the beginning it's implied that Skynet just discovered the ability to grow real living human tissue around Terminators, so Marcus's existence at that point is a bit confusing.

Then again, that'll probably be explained in the next movie, as well as all the other plot loose ends created in T4. You know Hollywood, they live to milk these cash cows. Damn you Hollywood!

Okay, so I may be analyzing the Terminator universe too much. But what can I say, it's fun to do so. So please, add your own thoughts, whether it be on the plot or the quality. Just don't criticize me for liking T4.

Incidentally, there's a Terminator Salvation machinima made using the video game tie-in. Which is probably better than the actual Terminator Salvation game, as that sucked.

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Ah, forgot about that feature. Just edited my original post. Thank you, Bali!

I thought it was a pretty good action/war popcorn flick. I did not hate T3.

Well, when I first saw T3, I actually liked it at the time. But it's the kind of film that, IMHO, does not stand up to repeated viewings. At the time it came out I thought it was cool, but when I saw it again and looked back upon it I didn't like it nearly as much. Mainly because it did nothing (that I saw) to really advance the Terminator universe any further, and just felt like an excuse to make a Terminator movie, an excuse to extend a franchise and milk more money off of it. Terminator Salvation may have been greenlighted by Hollywood for that reason, but I did not get that feeling from seeing T4, as I felt it added to the Terminator universe instead of just being filler.

Also, T4 has a giant robot. SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO THE GIANT ROBOT!!!!

Okay, it's been a little over a week since T4 came out, so hopefully more people have seen it now. That's why I thought this thread warranted a necro.

Anyway, to add something constructive, here's a critic's review I thought was particularly apt, especially the last paragraph. (Review contains spoilers.)

I thought it was a really great movie, except the ending was much too safe. I made up a much better one that I like to pretend happened instead of the whole "John Conner is mortally wounded but they're able to save his life thanks to the selfless sacrifice of the man-turned-machine that John had mistrusted but turned out to be more human than any of them."

I would have loved the ending much more if it had turned out that John Conner had DIED and everyone there (the only folks who really -knew- him) had all agreed that their new machine-man friend would -become- John Conner because John was too important to the resistance to be dead. Most of the resistance only knew him from his voice via those transmissions and robot man could fake that easily enough. He'd have Sarah Conner's tapes, so he'd know what all had happened and was supposed to happen. And that scenario is even kinda tied in with the TV series (Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) where in the future, hardly anyone EVER saw John Conner, they just always got their orders relayed via radio or from Cameron.